President Trump signed an executive order Thursday that approves a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S. after months of uncertainty about the future of the popular Chinese-owned social media platform.
TikTok is poised to be spun off into a separate U.S. entity to comply with a 2024 law requiring the app’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban.
The deal comes nine months after the law was originally set to go into effect. Trump, however, has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the measure in hopes of striking an agreement to keep the app available in the U.S.
Administration officials revealed last week that the U.S. had a “framework” for a deal following trade talks with China. Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved the deal, but it remains unclear whether Beijing is OK with the reported terms.
“I had a very good talk with President Xi,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office.
“A lot of respect for him. Hopefully, he has a lot of respect for me, too. And we talked about TikTok and other things, but we talked about TikTok and he gave us the go-ahead.
Under the deal, a group of U.S. investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake, are set to take a majority stake in the new TikTok entity. ByteDance will maintain less than 20 percent in equity to comply with the divest-or-ban law.
Vice President Vance said the company will be valued around $14 billion.
Oracle will also provide security for the new TikTok, in addition to inspecting and retraining a copy of the recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data.
Thursday’s order declares that Trump has determined the deal meets the requirements under the law for a “qualified divestiture” and addresses the national security concerns at hand. It also postpones enforcement for another 120 days, until Jan. 23, to complete the deal.
It’s unclear how lawmakers will respond to the specifics of the deal. Some have already voiced concerns about how such an agreement would comply with requirements that the new TikTok sever any operational relationship with ByteDance, including on the algorithm.
The divest-or-ban law passed Congress with widespread bipartisan support in April 2024 amid growing national security and data privacy concerns over the app’s ties to China.
“The fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law, both because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s a legal requirement of the law that was passed last year by Congress,” Vance said.
House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) touted the “extensive work” from Trump and Vance toward a TikTok divestiture in a statement Thursday.
However, they added, “As the details are finalized, we must ensure this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of CCP-aligned groups.”
Trump had called for banning TikTok from the U.S. during his first presidential term, but flipped on the issue on the 2024 campaign trail. Trump has since downplayed national security concerns about TikTok and noted its popularity with younger Americans.
TikTok also played a major role in the Trump campaign’s success in swaying thousands of college-aged voters to support his reelection bid, denting support for the Democratic ticket from a typically reliable source.
Updated at 5:40 p.m. EDT
